


O' Christmas Tree

by inknpaint



Category: Black Widow (Comics), Captain America (Comics), Marvel 616, Winter Soldier (Comics)
Genre: Christmas, Christmas Fluff, F/M, buckynat secret santa 2017
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-15
Updated: 2018-01-15
Packaged: 2019-03-05 04:30:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,658
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13380219
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inknpaint/pseuds/inknpaint
Summary: It's the holidays and Bucky and Nat haven't gotten around to getting a tree yet.This was written for fuckyeahbuckynatasha's secret santa for jvncys. I hope they enjoy it!





	O' Christmas Tree

**Author's Note:**

  * For [winter_romanoff](https://archiveofourown.org/users/winter_romanoff/gifts).



It was a week before Christmas, and they didn’t even have their decorations out. At this point every year, their condo would normally be lined with garland, a wreath on the door, and a tree fully decorated. Bucky made a point to make sure Christmas was celebrated every year between the two of them. It had become a weird obsession over the years. He never would’ve considered himself one of those kinds of Christmas people, but last year he had fully decorated their condo the day after Thanksgiving. 

The soldier pulled a thing of fake pine garland out of one of their storage boxes so that he could wrap the banisters with it. These were new from last year; he had been trying to add something new to their decorations every year, but again, this year he was barely even getting around to decorating. They were both busy. Between SHIELD and the Avengers, neither of them had the time to swing by their house for more than a shower and a couple hours of sleep. Today was the first day since Thanksgiving that he’d been able to dedicate the majority of a day to being home, and he was planning on making the most of it.  
He tied off the garland on the top of the stairs and pulled out his phone to snap a picture to send to Natasha.

“First decoration up!  
“When are you going to be home?  
“I was thinking we could get our tree today?”

The spy’s phone buzzed against her desk on the helicarrier. She looked down to see the texts from James, her head shaking slightly as a slight smile formed on her face. ‘He was back at it again,’ she thought, trying to figure out the best response to his text. Natasha was neutral when it came Christmas. She didn’t hate it, but she didn’t look forward to it every year. Before James had come back into her life, she spent the holidays working for SHIELD or by herself eating Chinese takeout and watching corny Christmas movies. 

Year after year, it never bothered Nat that James always pushed the, “Nothing should ever prevent us from celebrating Christmas. Steve never let the war stop us from celebrating…” ideal. She loved that James was always cute with how seriously he took it every year. But she always left the decorations to him; he was always particular about the way things were supposed to be, and she only ever helped when he asked her to. She’d been told one too many times that she was putting the wrong ornaments on the wrong branches to do something without direction. 

That’s why she was taking a moment to answer his text. Natasha had been unintentionally avoiding Christmas tree shopping. Okay, so it was mostly unintentional. Most of the time it was just that something always came up right as she was trying to get home, but a few times, she just had no desire to listen to Christmas music and deal with James micromanaging her ornament placement.

“I’ll try and make it home before three…” 

She looked at the text for a moment thinking over what James’s response would undoubtedly be: Try? Or are you just making another excuse so I’ll just get the tree by myself? The spy erased her text, reworded it and hit send.

“I’ll make it home by three  
“At the latest”

James sent back another pictures; this time their stair banister had been completed with a string of lights. 

“See you at four then?”

She sighed audibly, noticing that Liho was miserably rolling in the background of the picture trying to get a giant bow off her collar.

“Three, exactly.  
“And take that bow off Liho. She looks miserable.”

Bucky sent back a selfie of him holding Liho as she struggled to break free of his cybernetic grasp.

“You’re an idiot, James.  
“Leave my poor cat alone.”

The soldier chuckled as he looked at Nat’s texts, looking towards Liho--who was, as far as he was concerned, probably planning the perfect murder. 

“I’m sorry Liho. I thought you looked really cute with the bow...but your mother told me to stop messing with you,” he attempted to snatch off the bow he had loosely fastened to her collar, but the cat dash off in the opposite direction--apparently living with the bow on out of spite, or at least, he assumed that’s what was happening; he’s still learning cat. 

He turned towards rest of the boxes he had pulled out of their storage. Most of the boxes were full of ornaments, except the box with their stockings and other assorted decorations for their mantelpiece and the wreath box. Bucky carefully pulled the wreath box out from the bottom the pile. The wreath inside was pretty basic when it came to looks: fake pine which was lightly flocked in a few places, a couple of pine cones were nestled in the branches and a red ribbon. Nat had gotten it before the two of them had gotten back together and had several times since tried to get him to replace it, but he continued to insist that it was perfect. 

Bucky slipped out their front door into the hallway, keeping the door cracked just enough so their security wouldn’t kick in.

“A little late with the decorating this year, aren’t we, Jake?” 

“It’s James, Mrs. Kennedy…” he said more to himself than to her before he answered her question, “Uh...yeah. Nat and I have just been really busy...haven’t had the chance to even get our tree yet.”

He laughed slightly, as he straightened out some of the branches on the wreath.

“No time to get a tree...no time to get married...you’re just like my grandson….”

This time Bucky actually laughed, “Your grandson still holding onto the ring, I take it?”

“I swear I’m going to die before he put it on that girl’s finger.”

The bell announcing the arrival of the elevator interrupted their laughter, prompting them to both look towards the opening doors.

“Nat?”

“Hi Mrs. Kennedy!” Natasha said, ignoring James to say hi to their elderly neighbor who was about to head back inside her own house.

“Oh, Natasha, you always looks so fabulous. I don’t normally think of you as a bow person, but I think it works for this time of year,” Mrs. Kennedy winked before waving goodbye to both of them. “Have fun decorating.”

 

“Merry Christmas, Mrs. Kennedy,” they both said, as the women left the hallway.

“And...merry Christmas to you too, Jimmy.”

“It’s not Christmas, yet, Natalia…” he said, rolling his eyes before he pulled his girlfriend into a kiss.

“That doesn’t mean you can’t get an early Christmas present, does it?” she said a smirk on her face as she kissed him again. “Put that damn wreath up. We need to clear the way for the tree.”

“Tree?”

Natasha motioned for him to put the wreath on the door before heading inside.

“The same place?”

“What do you mean, ‘clear way for the tree…’?”

“I went and got a tree before I came home.”

“I don’t—”

“Think I could pick out a tree all by myself?” she asked, raising an eyebrow.

“No...I just—”

“Like to do Christmas decorations all by yourself, and you only invite me to decorate because you feel bad doing it without any of my input?”

“Nat—”

The doorbell cut his sentence short, sending Natasha practically skipping towards their front door--a smug look on her face over knowing she was right.

“Just over there if you don’t mind. Thanks guys. James and I’ll cover that mission for you. Just put the mission file on my desk tomorrow.”

“We’re doing what now for them?” James asked, as the two SHIELD agents left the tree in the corner of their living room.

“I offered up our services as spies so they’d help me bring home this tree.”

“It’s…”

“Perfect?” she said, moving boxes of ornaments towards the tree. “I happened to know an expert tree picker, and he might’ve taught me a thing or two.”

“I love you,” he said, going to kiss her again. 

She stopped him by meeting his lips with an ornament, “Not so fast, loverboy. We have a tree to decorate. And knowing our employers...we could have all night free or an alien invasion could interrupt the festivities at any moment.”

He shook his head, “You know...this doesn’t mean you’re off the hook for avoiding getting a tree with me in the first place, right?”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about, James.”

It didn’t take long for Natasha to get annoyed with James as they began to decorate the tree, so she instead drank red wine on their couch and occasionally offered advice on spacing of the ornaments from her perspective. With one of them doing the job, it also didn’t take long for Bucky to start getting tired of the process.

“James...you can’t quit now. The bottom half of the tree just has lights and no ornaments.”

Bucky grabbed the bottle of wine off the coffee table and took a drink straight from it before topping off Natasha’s glass. 

“You decorate the bottom half...my feet are getting tired,” he slumped down on the couch next to her, placing his head in her lap.

“Or we could just do that later and put up our stockings now?” she suggested. 

“Actually, that’s not a bad idea…”

The soldier got back up, grabbing the box marked “Mantlepiece” and heading back over to where they were seated. 

“Natalia,” he said, handing her her stocking and its hook before taking out his own.

The two of them stood up and walked towards their fireplace, hanging up the stockings. James lit their fireplace before sitting back on the couch with Natasha, kissing the top of her head as she leaned into him.


End file.
